MARCH

Slayer of winter, art thou here again?

O welcome, thou that bringest the summer nigh!
The bitter wind makes not thy victory vain,

Nor will we mock thee for thy faint blue sky.
Welcome, O March! whose kindly days and dry
Make April ready for the throstle's song,
Thou first redresser of the winter's wrong!

-WILLIAM MORRIS.

THE PATH OF THE RIGHTEOUS

"The path of the righteous is as the dawning light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."—Solomon.

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ALK in the light! and thou shalt own
Thy darkness passed away,

Because that light hath on thee shone

In which is perfect day."

-Bernard Barton.

After all, righteousness is the only beauty to be desired and sought for in this life. Such is unfading and universally admired. In all ages the righteous have blazed a trail of light through this dark world. What a glorious array of character portraits is presented to us in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. To refresh our faith we need only to consider the quality of character thus revealed. Each is a luminary in the midst of his own generation. Beginning with Enoch, "who walked with God, and he was not for God took him", to Moses, who "accounted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt", do we not behold the dawning light of righteousness in the midst of heathen darkness?

In a most positive sense this path of the righteous has a starting point, a direction and a goal. It begins in the positive acknowledgment of the Divine sovereignty, in the direction of a godly life, continuing toward the perfect day of eternal bliss. This path is frequently illuminated by definite spiritual experiences. As there is a sunrise every day upon the earth in the journey of the

great luminary which brightens the whole earth, so there are sunrise experiences in the soul's journey from earth to heaven.

We observe also that this path progresses in the midst of the steadily increasing light of the Divine presence. There is a growth in grace; a righteous discontent; an upward trend. There is a light within to impel and a light shining without to guide.

Finally this path finds its consummation in the Perfect Day of the Holy City of God. David in his parting word declares: "He shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, a morning without clouds". D. L. Moody, the great evangelist, when dying shouted: "Earth is receding; heaven is opening; God is calling me; do not call me back." It was the coming of the perfect day to his soul.

"The morning shall awaken, the shadows shall decay,

And each true-hearted servant shall shine as doth the day:
There God, our King and portion, in fullness of his grace,
Shall we behold forever, and worship face to face."

-BERNARD OF CLUNY.

LIFE'S BURDENS MADE LIGHT

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."—Jesus.

L

IFE'S burdens are many and grievous. Paul, the great Apos

tle, declares that "Each man shall bear his own burden”, and then exhorts all Christians to "bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ”.

There are burdens physical and spiritual. No class of humans is exempt. Standing alone under their weight mankind falters and despairs.

Who is He, then, that declares Himself to be life's great helper; the Supreme Teacher; the perfect example for the wide world? He is the man with a yoke and a burden. He does not. ignore life's burdens, but shows how they may be lightened.

"Oh, burdened soul; Oh, sick one- -come to Me" says Jesus. In His fellowship burdens will be lightened. Enroll as a pupil in His school. Take His yoke upon yourself, without faltering.

In a poem by Schiller is the beautiful story about the birds, that when they were first created they had no wings; and he says that God made the wings, put them down before the birds, and said: "Come, take up these burdens and bear them". The birds had beautiful plumage and voices. They could sing and shine, but they could not soar; but they took up their wings with their beaks and laid them upon their shoulders, and at first they seemed to be a heavy load and rather difficult to bear, but as they cheer

fully and patiently bore them and folded them over their hearts, lo, the wings grew fast, and that which they once bore now bore them. The burdens became pinions and the weights became wings.

His yoke is easy because there is a lining of love; because He demands only a true and reasonable service. He gives the rest of security; the rest from struggle with sin and selfishness.

"I heard the voice of Jesus say, 'Come unto Me and rest; Lay down, thou weary one, lay down thy head upon my breast.' I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and sad;

I found in Him a resting-place, and He has made me glad." -HORATIUS BONAR.

BEARING BURDENS

We are those that march through a wilderness, and each one carries some burden on his back-of toil, of sorrow, of sin; and in this caravan some go grumbling and complaining all their life because of the burden they are bearing, and some try to get their burden off slyly on to another's shoulders, and some bear bravely their own burden, and march uncomplainingly on; but some-the noblest of them all are they who stand erect, bearing their own burdens, then creep up behind others burdened like themselves, and put their shoulders beneath the burden of their fellows and lift it. lightening the load. Blessed are they who know how to so bear their own burdens as joyfully to bear the burdens of others also! -Lyman Abbott, D. D.